3.11.2005

A Crash Course in the Christian Supremacist Movement

I'm bumping this up in response to seeing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Real Time with Bill Maher this week. He actually spoke about the Dominion Theology movement and the fact that the head of the Dept. of the Interior is a member of what he called a group of "Christian Heretics". He cited an "unholy alliance" between polluters like the Coors family trading money for political clout for these Right Wing Extremists. This is not some crack pot conspiracy theory, This is a very real movement that is affecting your quality of life right now and endangering our future.

A Crash course in the Christian Supremacist Movement

I've been doing research on the "Religious Right" this week and at the risk that you think I'm being overly dramatic, I honestly tell you that I'm scared shitless. I think the liberal intelligentsia has failed to grasp what's happening in America. Make note of these words:

Dominion Theology, Dominionism, Dominionist

Kingdom Now theology

the Reconstructionist movement, Christian Reconstructionism

Tribulation, pretribulationism, midtribulationism, posttribulationism

the Vineyard movement

Coalition on Revival (COR)

Charismatic

Evangelical

the Fellowship or the Foundation

Promise Keepers

The Family - described as "an invisible association", who's members include:1

Senators

Don Nickles (R., Okla.)

Charles Grassley (R., Iowa)

Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.)

John Ensign (R., Nev.)

James Inhofe (R., Okla.)

Bill Nelson (D., Fla.)

Conrad Burns (R., Mont.)

Representatives

Jim DeMint (R., S.C.)

Frank Wolf (R., Va.)

Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.)

Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.)

Bart Stupak (D., Mich.)

.

I'm sure the names Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy, the late Francis Schaeffer and Billy Graham are familiar. The movement began with them. For a complete background, please read Katherine Yurica's beautifully researched article The Despoiling of America. There are numerous sources on the internet, so I'm just going to distill the main points here.

They want to establish an American Theocracy. Their goal is to remove the checks and balances in the Constitution, and consider George W. Bush to be their leader, installed in his office by none other than "God" himself.

" "Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. He's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this." - Lt Gen William "Jerry" Boykin

"Gen. Boykin has repeatedly told Christian groups and prayer meetings that President George W Bush was chosen by God to lead the global fight against Satan."2

Boykin and Bush are both fond of thinking of the war in Iraq as a "Crusade".

They favor the death penalty in many cases, including things like heresy, adultery, abortion and homosexuality. (BE VERY AFRAID of the fact that Ashcroft is after women's medical records!)

They have been systematically working to gain control of all three branches of government, and have made great inroads thanks to Bush's appointment of these Christian extremists to the judiciary, where they can attack Roe V. Wade and separation of church and state issues, and to key cabinet positions, where they are systematically supressing scientific findings that contradict their ideological goals. They've inplemented a global "gag rule" and are actively campaigning against any organization that promotes condom use or abortion. John Ashcroft's Dept. of Justice won't prosecute hate crimes against minority religions, and they are using the Patriot Act for drug crimes. They refuse to prosecute Christian extremists in this country - even when they blow up clinics - as terrorists. They've been running the Pentagon through the Office of Special Plans.3

They promote the homeschooling of children, so they push for vouchers as a way to destroy the public school system; and they have their own Universities like Liberty U. and Patrick Henry, which are the source of many of the current administration's interns.

They see poverty as God's way of punishing the undisciplined, and they believe that things like lying and cheating are fine as long as it's done to further the return of Jesus. Bush's consultations with Apocalyptic Christian groups concerning his policies on Israel are well documented.

But when he starts invoking church doctrine in a holy war against "evildoers," well, that's enough. If, like me, you happened to have seen the Frontline documentary The Jesus Factor, then you saw the president speak in coded language to his evangelical followers. You saw the president say that the Bible is the "guidebook" for federal social policy. You realized that Bush really does believe he's God's right-hand guy. When you were through shivering with fear in your bedroom closet, you knew for certain that President Bush is a fanatic who will get us all killed if he isn't stopped.Neal Pollack, Church and State

It's all about the Apocalypse. There's the popular "Left Behind" series of 12 books describing the Second Coming. There's a sort of kid's guide to the end of the world, a "Left Behind" graphic Novel and special Military and Political versions as well. ArmageddonBooks dot com offers the Apocalypse series and End Time novels with names like "666," "Nephilim" and my personal favorite "Jesus, the Computer and New York City." These sell in the millions and they're all about how Jesus will take them to heaven and leave us heretics here to burn.

"When President Bush adds God to their formulation and says God's purpose or intention is somehow linked with American military preeminence, that's a very dangerous thing. [After September 11,] President Bush and the White House basically choreographed a liturgy at the National Cathedral. President Bush was a chief homilist. In the pulpit of the National Cathedral, he made a war speech. He called the nation to arms in the pulpit of the National Cathedral, and he claimed a divine mission for our nation to rid the world of evil. That is not only bad foreign policy or presumptuous foreign policy--I would say it's idolatrous foreign policy to claim God's purpose for that mission. And in the language that Mr. Bush has used, he does this again and again and again. Our role, and his role as president, this is acclaiming a righteous [decree] that Pax Americana is God's foreign policy. This is a very unsettling thing." quoted in Church and State

It's getting hard to tell our Saviors apart, though. I've already linked to the story where the Pope thinks W. may be the Anti-Christ. Then we hear that a coronation was held in a SENATE (!) building with congress people carrying the crowns on pillows as Sun Myung Moon declared himself "sent to Earth . . . to save the world's six billion people. . . . Emperors, kings and presidents . . . have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent."4 He's a big time campaign contributor, so the pols in D.C. tolerate him. Or maybe they needed a false prophet? Or maybe George is the false prophet and Sun is the real deal? Maybe they're all fakes? This is making the triple sixes on my scalp itch.

I'm kidding about the 6's, as far as I know, but this is not a joke. The Left is treating these people as a joke, but it's far from funny. We are looking at a new strain of Christian Supremacists and they think they're playing for their very salvation. I live in the South, where these people don't have to resort to the stealth methods that they do in Washington. Most church-going Christians are good people trying to do the right thing. The problem is that good people are easily lead into bad things when their leaders know how to manipulate their fears, prey on the limits of their experience or education, and tell them what they want to hear while they do as they damn well please. These leaders are deeply entrenched in the oil and aerospace industry and many of them are in positions of power. That's a lot of money, a lot of connections, a lot of influence. Enough to send our troops to war for NO reason. Enough to loot our Treasury. Enough to destroy our global alliances and damage our credibility. Call me paranoid if you must, but remember that there were probably Germans who saw what was happening with their crazy little savior, too. I wonder if anyone listened to them?